1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mechanisms for operating high voltage switches, and more particularly, to a spiral spring operated mechanism which may be either automatically or manually operated or controlled to both open and close high voltage switches.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present invention constitutes an improvement over the construction disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,563,102 -- Bernatt, et al., entitled "SPIRAL SPRING OPERATING MECHANISM FOR HIGH VOLTAGE SWITCH", issued on Feb. 16, 1971, and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. That patent discloses a manually operable spiral spring mechanism for opening and closing high voltage switches. However, the mechanism disclosed in that patent may only be manually operated and no provision is made in the structure disclosed in that patent for automatic operation. In many high voltage installations, it is desirable to provide a switch operating mechanism which can be remotely controlled and operated without the necessity of human operation. However, in many situations, manual operation is also desirable so that it would be advantageous to provide a switch operating mechanism that may be operated either automatically or manually depending upon the desired function.
Thus, it would be a desirable advance in the art to provide a switch operating mechanism which may either be automatically controlled and operated or manually controlled and operated depending upon the desire function.